The

Dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

( 狗) is eleventh of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the

Chinese zodiac The Chinese zodiac is a traditional classification scheme based on the lunar calendar that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle. Originating from China, the zodiac and its variations remain ...

related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Dog is associated with the

Earthly Branch The twelve Earthly Branches or Terrestrial Branches are a Chinese ordering system used throughout East Asia in various contexts, including its ancient dating system, astrological traditions, zodiac and ordinals. Origin This system was buil ...

symbol 戌. The character 狗, also refers to the actual animal while 戌, also refers to the zodiac animal.

Years and the Five Elements

People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Dog", while also bearing the following

elemental An elemental is a mythic being that is described in occult and alchemical works from around the time of the European Renaissance, and particularly elaborated in the 16th century works of Paracelsus. According to Paracelsus and his subsequent fo ...

sign:

Basic astrology elements

2018

In the

sexagenary cycle The sexagenary cycle, also known as the Stems-and-Branches or ganzhi ( zh, 干支, gānzhī), is a cycle of sixty terms, each corresponding to one year, thus a total of sixty years for one cycle, historically used for recording time in China and t ...

, 2018 (16 February 2018–4 February 2019, and every 60-year multiple before and after), is the

Celestial stem The ten Heavenly Stems or Celestial Stems () are a Chinese system of ordinals that first appear during the Shang dynasty, c. 1250 BC, as the names of the ten days of the week. They were also used in Shang-period ritual as names for dead family mem ...

year indicated by the

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

戊戌. For the 2018 Year of the Dog, many countries and regions issued lunar new year

stamps Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to: Official documents and related impressions * Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail * Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods * Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...

. These included countries where the holiday is traditionally observed as well as countries in the Americas, Africa, Europe and Oceania. The U.S.-China Institute at USC created a web collection of more than 100 of these stamps.

References

External links

* {{Chinese Zodiac Chinese astrological signs Vietnamese astrological signs Mythological dogs Dogs in religion de:Chinesische Astrologie#Zählung ab Jahresbeginn

Years and the Five Elements

Basic astrology elements

2018

See also

References

Further reading

External links